Enhancement of hydrocarbon permeation by polar additives in liquid emulsion membranes

This paper describes the enhancement of hydrocarbon (HC) permeation through liquid emulsion membranes consisting of water, an emulsifying agent and a polar additive such as sulfolane or triethylene glycol (TEG). The addition of sulfolane caused both an increase in membrane breakup and a decrease in mechanical entrainment. Moreover, sulfolane considerably enhanced the permeation of HCs, although selectivity decreased with increasing sulfolane concentration. When the volume fraction of sulfolane in membrane solution was 0.35, a yield of 73 % for BTX was obtained during as short a contact period as ten seconds in the presence of Span 20 at 0.3 wt % in the solvent phase. Permeation enhancement by TEG was lower than that by sulfolane.